Toronto Review of Books interview

Kelli Deeth interviewed me for the Toronto Review of Books and I can say it’s one of my favourite interviews. Her questions on Malarky were carefully thought out and it’s clear arose from a very close reading of the novel. I was also grateful for her examination of who is absent from the novel … i.e. the daughters it’s the first time perhaps I’ve been asked about this. It reminds me again and again of how powerful a careful reading and excavation on any book can be and why, in my opinion, there’s often more power in being a reader than a writer.  I wish there was as much competition and desire to be a reader as there is to be a writer these days. Imagine if all job interviews commenced with the inquiry: so tell me what you are reading or what you have read?

I digress. Here’s a clip from Kelli Deeth’s interview and a link to the whole text.

9. I read that you spent ten years writing this book. What kept you going?

…Reading kept me going. It is what matters most. A single moment in publishing does not galvanize me as much as considering the interrelationship between many moments and how they speak to each other.

Finally I have an insatiable appetite for completely redundant information, so that keeps me very occupied and sustained – kinda like constant mental porridge.

Read Kelli Deeth’s Interview with Anakana Schofield here